A newly politicized college student: Your fondest hopes? Or worst nightmare? My cousin introduced me to her son (let’s call him “Andre”), a college student (finished his 3rd year) who is out for the summer. I’m supposed to be giving him summer job advice, since his internship applications all came to naught (investment banking was the desired position). In the course of “my dinner with Andre”, he imparted the following wisdom to me.

1. He has begun reporting for the campus conservative newspaper, “the counterweight”. Normally I would consider this a bit of good news, but the political motivation behind this orientation appears facetious: he desires to live off campus his final year, and the university will not grant him permission because it must fill all its on-campus beds to keep costs from soaring beyond the $40,000 a year it already charges. So far so good: he has detected - and resents - the tyranny of regulatory interference with market pricing and supply/demand. However, his reasons for wanting to live off campus are specious. He objects to the fact that campus police have the right to enter his dorm room and determine if his candles present a fire hazard, or if he’s hoarding alcohol or pot. Does he really think that legitimate police, off campus, won’t hassle him because of health and safety issues?
2. He, like so many other people who have never voted before, is a strong Obama supporter. At first I had little difficulty reconciling this position with his professed conservatism, since Obama IS a stirring public speaker. But unfortunately the student prince had identified an actual Obama policy which energized him: free health care. He thinks its wrong that 40 million residents (please don’t call them all citizens or Americans, Andre) are uninsured, and wants to tax “the rich” to give them free health care. When I asked what tax rate would be appropriate, he thought the federal tax rate on rich people should be raised to “35 or 40 percent”. An expression of genuine disbelief was produced when he found out rates were already that high, but he had a ready comeback: “tax the Bill Gates and other billionaires of the world 90% - nobody needs that much money”. The student prince, after some explanation, did appear to grasp the concept that confiscatory taxes simply force the wealthy – including entrepreneurs – to move to a lower tax country. The winning example was when he was told this was why the Beatles had incorporated their music business in America. Yes – he had heard of the Beatles, and knew THEY were (once) rich too.
3. Andre is majoring in economics. As such he pays lip service to the principles of free markets and floating currency exchange rates. But he believes all the subprime borrowers should be bailed out – until you ask him about the ones who were buying vacation homes, or were investing in properties hoping to flip them 6 months later for a $100,000 profit like they do on TV. And he also, after a few moments of dialogue, was willing to exclude the people who made up fictitious income numbers on their loan applications, or deliberately sought a “no documentation loan” after getting turned down for a conventional loan due to low income. But his conclusion after all this reflection was that “somebody has to be punished” for all the misery, and its probably the real estate agents who steered people to homes they could never afford, and mortgage brokers who didn’t quit their jobs en masse when the first “no documentation liar loan” forms were gingerly tested in the marketplace. In the fantasy world of the young and inexperienced there must be a villain behind every imperfect outcome, and that villain must punished to make the innocent feel better, even if the innocent aren’t actually innocent, and should be shown no relief for lying on their loans.

Oh, and a few pieces of errata. Andre feels that a $95 speeding ticket he had to pay for himself is highway robbery. (His daddy pays his $2,500 a year in car insurance). And college life is so stressful that he has to unwind with 5 or 6 beers (and who knows what else) each evening.

Have no fear, Andre . .. the real world awaits you in 12 short months (unless you’re on the 5 year plan). Then you will find out that college life is nothing but a dreamy 4 year vacation, and that you’re a spoiled rich kid who doesn’t know the first thing about the way the world works. But your real education begins soon enough . . . actually, the fact that all the investment banks are going broke and can’t pay you for doing next to nothing this summer could be considered “real world 101”, even . . .

today's subject line is a quote from the lyrics of "the mighty sam mcclain". a mutli time "w c handy" and grammy award winner. my favorite album of his is "soul survivor" <link>

What a shame. I mistook your post as seeking advice on how to bed this young, naive man. I thought YOU were caught between heaven and the blues.

::sighs::

American banks bundled the crappy sub-prime loans together with other loans and sold them to international banks as high yield annuities. I don’t know if it constitutes fraud but the fact is that banks are being bailed out for their greed by blameless taxpayers.

goodwill ambassador of the future, B!

P.S. I was on the six year undergrad plan. And I studied music and never once cut my hair. It might surprise you to learn the gigs I've landing since then.

Now, Tarq, there's no such thing as a blameless taxpayer. If you send money to people who promise to waste it, and to hurt you if you won't send it, well, you've got to shoulder your share of the blame.

One weeps, no doubt, for the future. Did you recommend that he change to a computer science program at the local community college? That would have been good advice.

That's some university the boy is attending. $120 G's deep, and you're apparently the first person who's ever asked him to clarify, let alone support, his opinions. Sad. What's his GPA?

What are you, in a f***in militia, Fitz ?

"massive debt" and "thinking independently" are opposing traits.

Hey, now, there's an idea. Know where I can find one? Can't be too long of a commute, though, my schedule is already pretty full.

Anyway, I see no innocent victims in the whole sub-prime mess, not even the poor taxpayers of Newcastle upon Tyne or Bavaria. Everyone who lost money was trying to win money, but was too foolish or ignorant to understand the game. Many smart investors prudently avoided the junk securities. Taxpayers whose governments are choosing to bail out the imprudent can only hope that their contributions will help stabilize their banking systems, but if they don't, said taxpayers were already screwed anyway.

he's 20, and a blood relative

the future is invariably . . .

• more expensive than you guessed
• longer hours
• higher taxes
• requires ongoing mastery of new technology

aside from the normal idiotic statements of youth- you know, half thought out tax policies, et. al. , i don't think andre's all that bad.

i think a 95 dollar speeding ticket is ridiculous, too. but of course, i'm the person that drives badly because i freak out when i see a cop and will get a ticket. meanwhile that crazy speed demon weaving past me through traffic never seems to see a flashing light. speeding tickets are less about public safety, imo, than building city/state revenue.

5 or 6 beers to relax? hell, it IS college. that's what a lot of our college experiences were like. (frankly, i always find it weird when i meet the straight arrows that didn't do such. and my school wasn't THAT much of a party school- certainly not in Consumer Reports Top Ten!)

And I think life is stressful for everyone. Yes. Even your 10 year old who you think has it so easy. And they do, maybe, when you look at life comparatively. But that can only mean something to the person who has experienced it, not to one who has no concept of what the future will hold. You can try and give a child some of this knowledge but ultimately we all learn that it can always be worse the older we get. Also, a person's personality often dictates how stressed they find what others might consider the ordinary things in life.

Ultimately, I don't think your relative is in such a bad place for his age- especially if you can get him to understand that he doesn't know everything and still has a lot to learn. That and sometimes it's best not to formulate an opinion (or at least voice it) if you only have a few of the facts. But i would say that to many people over 30 and 40 that i know as well!

Have you seen "Red Dawn", Fitz ? These guys have. About a million times.

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Worth the commute.


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Thanks for the tip, I ordered a calendar.

I actually grew up not far from these folks (not that I knew it at the time.) At heart they're just like any other obsessed hobbyists, you know. A bit geeky, with misplaced priorities.

I agree with much of the political philosophy expressed there, but not with their assessment of the facts. I don't live in fear of invasion or crackdown.

....can I have his phone number?

JK.